Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[koturnix]

Actually, I did lay my head on the incubator to listen, and then shouted: 'Come out babies!!!!', and then went back to listening.


Lol.


I even tried to get crafty by sticking a straw down into the incubators vent holes with a light shining into it to candle. Didn't work.

What we need is an incubator with a built in candler, say with grid coordinates.
Candle at: 1,3! *candler moves to egg #5*
That will be a good project to build next

 

[koturnix]

Looks like the near pipped egg didn't make it. Both chicks 3 and 4 died while pipping as they pipped/tried to pip on the narrow end of the egg and didn't have enough room to zip. I hear this is more common with shipped eggs?
I know assisted hatching is frowned upon but if I had known the chick was in trouble I would have grabbed it sooner to chip open pip hole for air. I left chick 4 in the incubator in hopes that it might revive but chances are probably not...

 

[Morrigan]

Looks like the near pipped egg didn't make it. Both chicks 3 and 4 died while pipping as they pipped/tried to pip on the narrow end of the egg and didn't have enough room to zip. I hear this is more common with shipped eggs?
I know assisted hatching is frowned upon but if I had known the chick was in trouble I would have grabbed it sooner to chip open pip hole for air. I left chick 4 in the incubator in hopes that it might revive but chances are probably not...

So, so sorry to hear that. I've read a lot of mixed things about assisting. IMO, I think it's OK to try, but the tricky part is knowing when you are more likely to help, rather than hurt. I don't think you should beat yourself up for not trying either. It's a tricky call, that could go wrong either way.

I wonder if they do get jumbled around in shipping.

 

[koturnix]

I wonder if they do get jumbled around in shipping.

I think if the seller packs the eggs well enough there might be a smaller chance of the chick getting jumbled up? My first hatch only had 1 chick that died while zipping (it punctured its yolk sac?) but the other eggs hatched perfectly - the seller had packed the eggs extremely secure, not even one was cracked so that majorly helped.

The eggs for this hatch were packed so badly that I'm surprised that 2 so far even hatched at all.

 

[chantels1]

All these pips are exciting!! Hoping to hear good news from you all in the morning.

Shipped eggs are difficult. Both shipments I got were perfectly packed. Not a crack in any egg. Sadly I think the post office dropped one package right out of the plane. The eggs were undamaged externally, but every one of them (17) had messed up air cells. 9/17 are wiggling around in their eggs. 1 may or may not have a blood ring developing & I haven't seen movement. Tomorrow is day 7. Rest of the eggs were culled with blood rings or non-developed.

Second breeder packaged well too. No cracks or anything. Only one detached air cell. Odd thing here is none of the black silkies developed. A blue was sent as extra. It is the only one with any development. Took some pics off the eggs as I opened. Some of the blastodermslook odd.

Infertile, or fertile?

 

[TotallyShellyTurtle]

Possible pip? Maybe?

 

[TotallyShellyTurtle]

Think I can coax them out by playing an endless loop of chirping chicks?

Lol

 

[koturnix]

Think I can coax them out by playing an endless loop of chirping chicks?

Lol

Hmm you may have something there...
Maybe we should all try that for our next hatches. For science.

 

[Cerise1924]

Well, I made what I thought was going to be another fruitless trip down to the basement to check the bater and, lo and behold, I had a pip. It's not willing to peep to me, lol, but the external egg has been breached. If you look really hard at the NW portion of the Maran egg in the front, you can see a bit of a white pimple, which is the pip. The one drawback of my brinsea is that your top view is obscured the the heating/fan unit.

The question is, will I be able to sleep tonight.

View attachment 1411331

Yay!! From your non-sleeping fellow hatcher....

 

[Cerise1924]

Looks like the near pipped egg didn't make it. Both chicks 3 and 4 died while pipping as they pipped/tried to pip on the narrow end of the egg and didn't have enough room to zip. I hear this is more common with shipped eggs?
I know assisted hatching is frowned upon but if I had known the chick was in trouble I would have grabbed it sooner to chip open pip hole for air. I left chick 4 in the incubator in hopes that it might revive but chances are probably not...

So sorry. It's hard to know what to do with so much contrary advice coming forward re: assisting, and you never know if the chick would have made it had you stepped in. All we can do is whatever seems best at the moment.